21/12/2007

From the Feuilletons

From the Feuilletons is a weekly overview of what's been happening in the German-language cultural pages and appears every Friday at 3 pm. CET.. Here a key to the German newspapers.

Die Tageszeitung 21.12.2007

A study carried out by the German Ministry of the Interior showed that 40 percent of Muslims living in Germany have a 'fundamentally oriented' attitude to Islam. In other words they consider Islam more important than other religions or they believe armed struggle will take them to paradise. The Islam scientist Michael Kiefer had the following to say about the results of the study: "The statements of the school pupils questioned are indeed cause for concern. They revealed that a quarter of young Muslims feel extremely distanced from democracy. And their anti-Semitic prejudices are far more pronounced than in a comparison group of non-Muslims."

Neue Zürcher Zeitung 21.12.2007

On the media page, "ber" reports on an Iranian TV series about the Holocaust. It tells the story of an Iranian student in 1940s Paris who, out of love for a young Jewish girl, saves the lives of her family and other Jews. "It seems Tehran wanted this series to make it very clear that it accepts that the Holocaust took place. So is everything a big misunderstanding? No, says journalist Mohammed Kazemi. Many Iranians would never question the Holocaust. But they are convinced that the Zionists collaborated with the Nazis in order to found a "homestead for Jews' in Palestine. Jews who opposed this exodus were, many Iranians choose to believe, murdered by the Zionists, Kazemi says. This opinion is also aired several episodes into 'Zero Degree Turn' as the series is called.

nachtkritik 20.12.2007 Thomas Langhoff has staged Schiller's "Wallenstein" at the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he's cut the play down to just four hours. Unfortunately that meant "getting rid of Schiller's ingenious concentric circles of drama," Peter Schneeberger sighs: "Langhoff will have nothing to do with Schiller's tableau-like depiction of a soldier's camp. His two dramaturges, Wolfgang Wiens and Ursula Voss, have consistently slashed all the verse that doesn't serve the plot. The red pen has seen off the philosophical reflections on freedom, loyalty, solitude and strength of the will, as well as all sorts of atmospheric details. Langhoff wants to tell the two-hundred-year-old drama in the form of gripping political theatre. And he's right: 'Wallenstein' is a dark chamber piece on power."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 20.12.2007

Russian writer Viktor Erofeyev sees bigoted Russian Orthodoxy on the rise in the current moral crisis in his country, predicting that when in doubt, the state, which has ceaselessly accrued power under Putin, will simply make use of the Church's influence. "The state's power is wavering, but at least Putin has not yet come out in favour of introducing the fundamentals of Orthodox faith in the schools. The time for an Orthodox theocracy has not yet come, nevertheless the Church is keen to cast the state power in a monarchic light, even though it is well aware that it was anything but independent during Czarist times and that the Patriarchy was done away with under the Czars. The alliance between church and state will not be easy, yet it's clear who will emerge as the winner. The state has the necessary clout to put the brakes on the Church if it gains too much influence."

Spiegel Online 20.12.2007

Unlike Time magzine which selected Vladimir Putin as "Person of the Year 2007," Sonja Margolina disagrees that he has stabilized conditions in Russia: "The mantra about Russian stability chanted in unison by western governments is deceptive. In the eight years of his undisputed power, Putin has weakened or obliterated all state institutions. In the name of supposed stability he has allowed his secret service to destroy the Yukos oil conglomerate and to snatch up other valuable assets, mostly in the energy sector."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 19.12.2007

Katharina Narbutovic gives a striking image of Belarus: "Belarus today is wandering around in search of itself, yet it always comes too late. It's like a creature from a painting by de Chirico, with a helmet on its head that obstructs its view. In the words of author, photographer and conceptual artist Artur Klinau, a central figure in Belarus' independent art scene, the country is 'neither part of one system nor another. It doesn't belong to the EU, nor does it belong to Russia. It is foreign, and condemned to solitude because it's ignored by all sides. It searches and searches for its defining features, but these remain a mystery. Belarus suffers from a sort of lunacy in loneliness.' For Klina the image of the man with the helmet is the embodiment of his country in its 13th year under President Lukashenko."

Süddeutsche Zeitung 19.12.2007

Of course the paper could have printed an article about pop music's new stars. But these stars are women, so they have to be asked what's female about their music. However Antye Greye, Susanne Brokesch, Susie Reinhard, Aki Takase and Michaela Melian don't have much time for this sort of question. Lydia Daher from Augsburg tells it like it is: "My music doesn't have any defining sexual characteristics. At least I don't think it does. I have to admit, I've never looked. That would be indiscreet. Just like the question about what makes my music female. Is that important? Or rather: is that the question at all?"

Frankfurter Rundschau 19.12.2007

Der Spiegel has announced that as of spring 2008 it will provide free online access to its archive of articles that have appeared in the magazine since 1947, and also feature Wikipedia entries as open source information. Christian Schlüter comments: "The natural enemy of Ã¢â¬â well-fortified- democracy is mass democracy. And 'good journalism' seems to particularly endangered. People fear a Babylonian cacophony, a labyrinth of meanings and points of view, chaos, entropy... It is mostly the representatives of the analogue paper-bound print media who bellyache about the loss of more or less established hierarchies and they will certainly have their own interests at heart. Yet the much more interesting question is, whether there are good reasons for fearing digital competition in terms of content."

Other websites 19.12.2007

The website of Swedish TV channel Axess features a video and text document of the discussion which took place in London between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Timothy Garton-Ash. Both also refer to the Bruckner-Buruma debate at signandsight.com and Perlentaucher. TGA also solemnly if somewhat ironically addresses the term "enlightenment fundamentalism" which had applied to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. "I want to start with doing something unusual which is to revise something one wrote previously. As some of you will know from the debates and the public prints I am a book reviewer in the New York Review of Books described Ayaan as an enlightenment fundamentalist. Some wise friends told me, warned me at the time that this was bound to be misunderstood. This was they said a great mistake. How right they were, because as some of you will know a great discussion has unfolded, particularly in Germany, from which one might have gathered that I had authored a three volume tome called something like the 'Aufklärungs fundementalismusÃ¢â¬Â¦' and I want to say here quite clearly that it did not occur to me that anyone would be so idiotic as to imagine that one was construing any symmetry between Islamic fundamentalists and enlightenment fundamentalists.

From the blogs 18.12.2007

Don Alphonso comments on the announcement that Spiegel Online and Bertelsmann Media want to launch an Internet portal and use Wikipedia content. "I think Wikipedia's great achievement is to give the authors the feeling that they can join together to do something for one another. And it is precisely this feeling that these German companies want to tear apart. In my opinion Bertelsmann and Spiegel are not the slightest bit interested in functioning social systems, and the same goes for Google. If Wikipedia doesn't want to end up the loser between full-scale exploitation on the one hand and financial temptations on the other, they should consider making fundamental changes to their licensing system."

Neue Zürcher Zeitung 18.12.2007

Two months ago writer Maxim Biller's novel "Esra" was banned after his former girlfriend won the court case against the novel for violation of personality rights. Yesterday, Joachim Güntner reports, a court in Leipzig decided in favour of artistic freedom. The case concerned the autobiography "Ein ganz gewöhnliches Leben" (a very normal life) by the art teacher Lisl Urban, whose ex-lover and SS officer Erich S. had accused her of creating a false impression in her book by suggesting that he genuinely loved her. The district court of Leipzig ruled that this did not amount to defamatory representation."

Die Tageszeitung 17.12.2007

Tilman Baumgärtel, author of a book about Philippine cinema (here as a download), expresses the wish that South East Asia's dynamic cinema will finally be shown at home. "Sometimes it's easer to see these films at festivals abroad than in the countries where they were produced. John Torres' 'Todo Todo Teros' (2006) won several international film prizes, but was only shown a few times in the Philippines. He always carries a few DVDs of his films with him in his backpack, handing them out to acquaintances or anyone else who shows an interest. From time to time Torres and Lav Diaz even toy with the idea of giving their films to DVD pirates. Their business flourishes throughout South East Asia, and they have an extraordinarily efficient sales network."

Frankfurter Rundschau 17.12.2007

Udo Kittelmann, former director of Frankfurt's Museum für Moderne Kunst, will take over as director of the Alte and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Elke Buhr praises Kittelmann's work in Frankfurt and speculates on his future in Berlin: "Mies van der Rohe's Neue Nationalgalerie is a somewhat run-down structure, that's true. Nevertheless it has absolute cult status in art circles. Here, as in Frankfurt, the collection focuses largely on 20th century works. In his programming Kittelmann has consistently opted for quality over blockbuster. We shall see how he comes to terms with the influential Friends of the National Gallery association, which ever since the MoMA in Berlin exhibition has liked nothing better than to be overrun by hordes of visitors."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 15.12.2007

SociologistNecla Kelek expands on the differences of opinion held by Muslims and secularists on concepts such as "freedom" and "respect" and arrives at the following conclusion: "I do not believe that as a way of seeing the world and a system of values, Islam can be integrated into European societies, and therefore it should not be recognised as a body of public law. This is not a question of good will. It simply lacks the structural and theological preconditions and its representatives, to quote Habermas, lack "a legitimation rooted in conviction." Islam itself cannot be integrated, but the individual Muslim can, as a citizen of the state. He can retain his beliefs and identity in our society because the European tolerance of the Enlightenment sees adherents of all religions as equal."

Frankfurter Rundschau 15.12.2007

Peter Michalzik is delighted with Media Markt's new advertising campaign, in which comedian Olli Dittrich gives a very convincing social portrait of seven German types: "'I'm not an idiot' (the company's marketing slogan), they all think, but at the same time they're all utterly impossible. Dittrich's good-natured misanthropy reaches top form in this German panorama. In it, he reverses the mechanism behind the horror genre: every horror has something loveable about it. In addition, Dittrich's portrait gallery thrives on a hugely important Ã¢â¬â if not entirely new Ã¢â¬â insight: If you really want to understand Germany, go to the nearest electronic goods outlet. Anyone not convinced that this is where the Germans' uniqueness is best revealed, should go down to Saturn or Conrad and have a look at the male customers." (Here the adverts online).

Saturday 11 - 17 December, 2010

A clutch of German newspapers launch an appeal against the criminalisation of Wikileaks. Vera Lengsfeld remembers GDR dissident Jürgen Fuchs and how he met death in his cell. All the papers were bowled over Xavier Beauvois' film "Of Gods and Men." The FR enjoys a joke but not a picnic at a staging of Stravinsky's "Rake's Progress" in Berlin. Gustav Seibt provides a lurid description of Napoleonic soap in the SZ. German-Turkish Dogan Akhanli author explains what it feels like to be Josef K. read more

Saturday 4 - Friday 10 December

Colombian writer Hector Abad defends Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa against European Latin-America romantics. Wikileaks dissident Daniel Domscheit-Berg criticises the new publication policy of his former employer. The Sprengel Museum has put on a show of child nudes by die Brücke artists. The SZ takes a walk through the Internet woods with FAZ prophet of doom Frank Schirrmacher. The FAZ is troubled by Christian Thielemann's unstable tempo in the Beethoven cycle. And the FR meets China Free Press publisher, Bao Pu.read more

Saturday 27 November - Friday 3 December

Danish author Frederik Stjernfelt explains how the Left got its culturist ideas. Slavenka Draculic writes about censoring Angelina Jolie who wanted to make a film in Bosnia. Daniel Cohn-Bendit talksÃÂ ÃÂ about his friendship, falling out and reconciliation with Jean-Luc Godard. Wikileaks has caused an embarrassed silence in the Arab world, where not even al-Jazeera reported on the what the sheiks really think. Alan Posener calls for the Hannah Arendt Institute in Dresden to be shut down.read more

Saturday 20 - Friday 26 November, 2010

The theatre event of the week came in a twin pack: Roland Schimmelpfennig's new play, a post-colonial "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" opened at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and the Thalia in Hamburg. The anarchist pamphlet "The Coming Insurrection" has at last been translated into German and has ignited the revolutionary sympathies of at least two leading German broadsheets, the FAZ and the SZ. But the taz, Germany's left-wing daily, says the pamphlet is strongly right-wing. What's left and right anyway? came the reply.read more

Saturday 13 - Friday 19 November, 2010

Dieter Schlesak levels grave accusations against his former friend and colleague, Oskar Pastior, who spied on him for the Securitate. Banat-Swabian author and vice chairman of the Oskar Pastior Foundation, Ernest Wichner, turns on Schlesak for spreading malicious rumours. Die Zeit portrays the Berlin rapper Harris, and the moment he knew he was German. Dutch author Cees Nooteboom meditates on the near lust for physical torture in the paintings of Francisco de Zurburan. An exhibition in Mannheim displays the dream house photography of Julius Schulman.read more

Saturday 6 - Friday 12 November, 2010

The NZZ asks why banks invest in art. The FAZ gawps at the unnatural stack of stomach muscles in Michelangelo's drawings. The taz witnesses a giant step for the "Yugo palaver". Bernard-Henri Levy describes Sakineh Ashtiani's impending execution as a test for Iran and the west.Journalist Michael Anti talks about the healthy relationship between the net and the Chinese media. Literary academic Helmut Lethen describes how Ernst Jünger stripped the worker of all organic substances.read more

Saturday 30 October - Friday 5 November, 2010

Now that German TV has just beatifiedPope Pius XII, Rolf Hochmuth tells die Welt where he got the idea for his play "The Deputy". The FR celebrates Elfriede Jelinek's "brilliantly malicious" farce about the collapse of the Cologne City Archive. "Carlos" director Olivier Assayas makes it clear that the revolutionary subject is a figment of the imagination. The SZ returns from the Shanghai Expo with a cloying after-taste of sweet 'n' sour. And historian Wang Hui tells the NZZ that China's intellectuals have plenty of freedom to pose critical questions.read more

Saturday 23 - Friday 29 October, 2010

Author Doron Rabinovici protests against the concessions of moderate Austrian politicians to the FPÖ: recently in Vienna, children were sent back to Kosovo at gunpoint. Ian McEwan wonders why major German novelists didn't mention the Wall. The NZZ looks through the Priz Goncourt shortlist and finds plenty of writers with more bite than Houellebecq. The FAZ outs two of Germany's leading journalists who fiercely guarded the German Foreign Ministry's Nazi past. Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt analyse the symptoms of culturalism, left and right. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht demonstratively yawns at German debate.read more

Saturday 16 - Friday 22 October, 2010

A new book chronicles the revolt of revolting "third persons" at Suhrkamp publishers in the wild days of 1968. Necla Kelek is appalled by the speech of the very Christian Christian Wulff, the German president, in Turkey. The taz met a new faction of hardcore Palestinians who are fighting for separate sex hairdressing in Gaza. Sinologist Andreas Schlieker reports on the new Chinese willingness to restructure the heart. And the Cologne band Erdmöbel celebrate the famous halo around the frying pan.read more

Saturday 9 - Friday 15 October, 2010

The FR laps up the muscular male bodies and bellies at the Michelangelo exhibition in the Viennese Albertina. The same paper is outraged by the cowardice of the Berlin exhibition "Hitler and the Germans". Mario Vargas-Llosa remembers a bad line from Sweden. Theologist Friedrich Wilhelm Graf makes it very clear that Western values are not Judaeo-Christian values. The Achse des Guten is annoyed by the attempts of the mainstream media to dismiss Mario Vargas-Llosa. The NZZ celebrates the tireless self-demolition of Polish writer and satirist Slawomir Mrozek.read more

Saturday 2 - Friday 8 October, 2010

Nigerian writer Niyi Osundare explains why his country has become uninhabitable. German Book Prize winner Melinda Nadj Abonji says Switzerland only pretends to be liberal. German author Monika Maron is not surethat Islam really does belong to Germany. Russian writer Oleg Yuriev explains the disastrous effects of postmodernism on the Petersburg Hermitage. Argentinian author Martin Caparros describes how the Kirchners have co-opted the country's revolutionary history. And publisher Damian Tabarovsky explains why 2001 was such an explosively creative year for Argentina.read more

Saturday 25 September - Friday 1 October

Three East German theatre directors talk about the trauma of reunification. In the FAZ, Thilo Sarrazin denies accusations that his book propagates eugenics: "I am interested in the interplay of nature and nurture." Polemics are being drowned out by blaring lullabies, author Thea Dorn despairs. Author Iris Radisch is dismayed by the state of the German novel - too much idle chatter, not enough literary clout. Der Spiegel posts its interview with the German WikiLeaks spokesman, Daniel Schmitt. And Vaclav Havel's appeal to award the Nobel prize to Liu Xiabobo has the Chinese authorities pulling out their hair.read more

Saturday 18 - Friday 24 September, 2010

Herta Müller's response to the news that poet Oskar Pastior was a Securitate informant was one of overwhelming grief: "When he returned home from the gulag he was everybody's game." Theatre director Luk Perceval talks about the veiled depression in his theatre. Cartoonist Molly Norris has disappeared after receiving death threats for her "Everybody Draw Mohammed" campaign. The Berliner Zeitung approves of the mellowing in Pierre Boulez' music. And Chinese writer Liao Yiwu, allowed to leave China for the first time, explains why schnapps is his most important writing tool.read more

Saturday 10 - Friday 17 September, 2010

The poet Oskar Pastior was a Securitate informant, the historian Stefan Sienerth has discovered. Biologist Veronika Lipphardt dismisses Thilo Sarrazin'sincendiary intelligence theories as a load of codswallop. A number of prominent Muslim intellectuals in Germany have written an open letter to President Christian Wulff, calling for him to "make a stand for a democratic culture based on mutual respect." And a Shell study has revealed that Germany's youth aspire to be just like their parents.read more

Saturday 4 - Friday 10 September, 2010

Thilo Sarrazin has buckled under the stress of the past two weeks and resigned from the board of the Central Bank. His book, "Germany is abolishing itself", however, continues to keep Germany locked in a debate about education and immigration and intelligence. Also this week, Mohammed cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has been awarded the M100 prize for defending freedom of opinion. Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech at the award ceremony: "The secret of freedom is courage". The FAZ interviewed Westergaard, who expressed his disappointment that the only people who had shown him no support were those of his own class. read more